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The primacy of foreign policy in Nazi Germany has been debated for decades. This article seeks not to re-open an old debate, but focuses on the two big aims of Nazi policy: ‘Final Victory’ and ‘Final Solution’. In order to analyse their relationship, they are identified as war aims; there follows an examination of both the role of the war in Nazi doctrine and Hitler's role in decision-making in general. It can be shown that Hitler's original war plan saw ‘Final Victory’ as a prerequisite for the ‘Final Solution’, but that from August 1941 the implementation of the ‘Final Solution’ followed...

The primacy of foreign policy in Nazi Germany has been debated for decades. This article seeks not to re-open an old debate, but focuses on the two big aims of Nazi policy: ‘Final Victory’ and ‘Final Solution’. In order to analyse their relationship, they are identified as war aims; there follows an examination of both the role of the war in Nazi doctrine and Hitler's role in decision-making in general. It can be shown that Hitler's original war plan saw ‘Final Victory’ as a prerequisite for the ‘Final Solution’, but that from August 1941 the implementation of the ‘Final Solution’ followed the intention of achieving ‘Final Victory’ through the extermination of the European Jews. ‘Final Victory’ and the ‘Final Solution’ thus appear as goals which illuminate the primacy of foreign policy in Nazi Germany.